Ya man. Way ahead of ya. If you check my last post on the first page of this thread I've already switched to coco/perlite and converted my buckets to hempy's - already almost 30 days in 70perlite/30coco:
View attachment 389787
Done with problems. I love hydro but dealing with this rot has my hair falling out. I need reliability.
...yeah, i somehow missed that post, lol.
anyway, i'll say it again, coco IS hydro bro, and so running hempy's is just a PASSIVE form of hydro, you still feed it like hydro and you'll get similar yields, just without all the drama and the need for harsh chemicals or expensive equipment that occasionally fails.
...i suppose if you were trying to squeeze out as many grams as possible there MIGHT be an active hydro way to beat straight coco DTW but i know for a fact that there is NO active hydro method as easy and reliable as coco hempy's.
maybe next run do a couple without the perlite, i found i could do just fine with just straight coco.
...here's a couple from when i was first learning to use coco and hempy's and these yielded nearly 2zipz per plant and both were grown in 2liter Coke bottle hempys of straight coco with perlite in the bottom res and under a 400CMH inside a smallish cab.
...here you can see the seperation between layers clearly.
...and here is a shot showing the one on the left with hydroton AND perlite in the res, i was experimenting and learning and i have found that hydroton or grorocks, or even lava rock or gravel works at least as good in the res as perlite but without all the mess, ...i stopped using perlite altogether a bit more than 2 years ago.
...anyway, i love me my coco hempy's and i'm sure you will too but if i had an op as big as yours i'd probably be running straight coco, DTW because a setup like that would be easy to automate and HGO sure seems to demonstrate in his threads that an automated setup with multiple feeds boost yields a good deal, if i remember it right it has something to do with all the oxygen that is carried to the rootzone with each watering.
anyway, phuck needing all those harsh chemicals to keep your op running, whether they be cheap or dear.
peace, bozo